Collection

Levelling up

Published on 4 February 2022

Our analysis of the government's announcements on levelling up.

Explainers

'Levelling Up' explained

explainer

We look at what the government should consider when pursuing its 'levelling up' agenda.

2 October 2020

Investment, infrastructure and levelling up

podcast

What is investment spending? Why is investment so much lower now than it was 40 or 50 years ago?

9 July 2020

Analysis

Freeports and Investment Zones – what sorts of things should we consider when assessing whether they are good policy?

comment

We discuss the economic issues central to whether Freeports and Investment Zones are a good idea.

10 March 2023

Freeports: What are they? What do we know? And what will we know?

report

This report analyses the rationale for Freeports and what we can learn about their potential impact from past policies and a planned evaluation.

10 March 2023

The poor are failed most by our inability to reform local services

comment

"Our system of funding for local services is not fit for purpose." Paul Johnson in The Times on the urgent need for local services funding reform.

24 October 2022

Does funding follow need? An analysis of the geographic distribution of public spending in England

report

In the financial year before COVID-19, government spending that can be attributed to England amounted to £541 billion or £9,650 per person.

20 October 2022

Will the Fair Funding Review be another damp squib?

report

Last month the government finally announced how its replacement for EU regional development funding – the Shared Prosperity Fund – will be allocated across the country.

11 May 2022

IFS response to UK Shared Prosperity Fund

comment

It is disappointing that the UK government has ‘taken back control’ only to stick to an arbitrary, poorly designed, out-of-date funding allocation mechanism.

13 April 2022

Is public service spending aligned with the ‘levelling up’ agenda?

comment

The allocation of public spending is one the most direct levers for ‘levelling up’ health, wealth and well-being. But is policy aligned with the government’s stated aims?

18 March 2022

Spatial disparities across labour markets

book chapter

Spatial inequalities in the UK are profound and persistent. This IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities chapter looks at their impacts.

2 February 2022

An image of a street full of boarded up houses

At this event, IFS researchers will put the Levelling Up White Paper in context by outlining the current pattern of taxes and public spending around the country and presenting new work that looks at geographic inequalities in labour market outcomes.

An initial IFS response to the government's Levelling Up White Paper

comment

We respond to the government’s ‘Levelling Up White Paper' published today.

2 February 2022

Response to government's Levelling Up White Paper

report

The Levelling Up White Paper is just the latest of efforts to tackle regional inequalities. What does it tell us about this government’s approach? And how likely is it to succeed where others have failed?

4 February 2022

IFS pre-release 'stress test' for the Levelling Up White Paper

comment

New IFS research shows that regional inequalities have been very persistent, and that making a difference will take persistent focus over a long time.

1 February 2022

Education spending changes put a major brake on levelling up

press release

The cuts to education spending over the last decade are effectively without precedent in post-war UK history.

30 November 2021

Education spending: resourced for levelling up?

presentation

The next few years are likely to be particularly challenging for schools, colleges, universities and nurseries. This event examined how education spending can be best set to support levelling up and narrow inequalities.

30 November 2021

The growing gap between state school and private school spending

comment

We find that the gap between private school fees and state school spending per pupil has more than doubled over the last decade.

8 October 2021

Whatever levelling up might mean, there’s an age-old problem to tackle

comment

"We’ll know we are on the way to levelling up when differences in health and life expectancy across the country start to drop. Sadly, that’s one measure of inequality that has clearly been moving in the wrong direction over the past decade." Paul Johnson writes for The Times on levelling up.

19 July 2021

IFS Green Budget 2020: Challenges for the Spending Review and levelling up

presentation

At this event, IFS researchers presented the findings of two chapters of the 2020 IFS Green Budget, addressing the big questions around the 2020 Spending Review and ‘levelling up’.

2 October 2020

Economic disruption from COVID-19 and Brexit will complicate the levelling-up agenda

press release

2 October 2020

Levelling up: where and how?

book chapter

This government has pushed geographic inequalities to the top of the policy agenda. In his very first speech as Prime Minister, Boris Johnson made clear his intent to boost economic performance outside of London and the South East, to ‘level up’ across the country and to revive the fortunes of the UK’s ‘left-behind’ towns and cities.

2 October 2020

Catching up or falling behind? Geographical inequalities in the UK and how they have changed in recent years

report

The COVID-19 crisis has brought to the fore increasing concerns about inequalities not only between different population groups – such as the gap between the rich and poor, young and old, and different ethnic groups – but also between people living in different places. Even prior to the crisis though, there was a sense that the UK is not only a highly geographically unequal country, but also an increasingly geographically unequal one.

3 August 2020

Sharing prosperity? Options and issues for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund

report

European Structural and Investment (ESI) funds help to pay for initiatives supporting business development, research and development, investment in digital and green infrastructure, as well skills and training interventions and support for job-seekers. But with the UK having formally departed the European Union, the country will stop receiving new ESI funding at the end of 2020. Thus, for 2021 and beyond, the UK government faces choices over what to replace ESI funding with.

13 July 2020

Brexit offers an opportunity to rationalise regional funding schemes. It’s past time government announced what it will do

press release

The UK government has yet to confirm details of its proposed replacement: the Shared Prosperity Fund.

13 July 2020

Revaluation and reform of council tax could be part of the ‘levelling up’ agenda, and could help the poor, young and disabled

press release

19 March 2020

Levelling up: what might it mean for public spending?

comment

Much has been made of the Government’s promise to ‘level up’ across the UK.

9 March 2020

Authors

Christine Farquharson

Associate Director

Christine's research examines inequalities in children's education and health, especially in the early education and childcare sector.

Paul Johnson

Director

Paul has been the Director of the IFS since 2011. He is also currently visiting professor in the Department of Economics at University College London.